"the military is not always correct, and so it is not wise policy for the commander-in-chief to simply do whatever the generals say"
— Stephen Saideman (@smsaideman) October 8, 2014

"challenge of command is not deciding whether to listen to generals but deciding which generals best understand the strategic situation"
— Stephen Saideman (@smsaideman) October 8, 2014

"The constitutional fix for bad military policy by the executive branch is better oversight from the congressional branch" #CivMIlWisdom
— Stephen Saideman (@smsaideman) October 8, 2014

and then my response to the classic quote by Clemenceau:

and Civ-mil is too important to be left to just executive branch RT @KTBrushett: War is too important to leave to the generals. Clemenceau
— Stephen Saideman (@smsaideman) October 8, 2014

I guess my timing is good--I submitted yesterday a grant application to study the role of legislatures in the civil-military relations of 21st century democracies. Now back to an earlier book project that is getting a second life thanks to Putin's irredentism.

Stephen M. Saideman

Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist, specializing in International Relations, my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations. I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.